CRIME PREVENTION TIPS
Date Rape
Rapists aren't always strangers. When someone you know - a date, steady boyfriend, or casual friend - forces you to have sex, it's still rape.
Preventing Rape
As a woman, you can...
- Be careful not to let alcohol or other drugs decrease your ability to take care of yourself and make sensible decisions.
- Trust your gut feelings. If a place or the way your date acts makes you nervous or uneasy, get out.
- Check out a first date or a blind date with friends. Meet in and go to public places. Carry money for a phone call or taxi, or take your own car.
- Don't leave a social event with someone you've just met or don't know.
- Do not accept beverages from someone you don't know and trust. Always watch your drink and never leave it unattended.
As a man, you can...
- Accept a woman's decision when she says "no". Don't see it as a challenge.
- Ask yourself how sexual stereotypes affect your attitudes and actions toward women.
- Avoid clouding your judgment and understanding of what another person wants by using alcohol and other drugs.
- Realize that forcing a woman to have sex against her will is rape, a violent crime with serious consequences.
- Never be drawn into gang rape.
- Seek counseling or a support group to help you deal with feelings of violence and aggression toward women.
What are "date rape" drugs?
Rohyponol (“roofies", "roopies", "circles", "the forget pills") works like a tranquilizer. It causes muscle weakness, fatigue, slurred speech, loss of motor coordination and judgment, amnesia that lasts up to 24 hours. It looks like aspirin - small, white and round.
GHB (also known as "liquid X", "salt water", or "scoop") also causes quick sedation. Its effects are drowsiness, nausea, vomiting headaches, dizziness, coma, and death. Its most common form is a clear liquid although it can also be a white grainy powder.
Rohyponol and GHB are called the date rape drugs because when they are slipped into someone's drink, a sexual assault can take place without the victim being able to remember what happened.
IF DATE RAPE HAPPENS...
- Get help. Don't isolate yourself, don't feel guilty, and don't try to ignore it. It is a crime and should be reported.
- Get medical attention as soon as possible. Do not shower, wash douche, or change your clothes. Valuable evidence could be destroyed.
- Get counseling to deal with the emotional trauma.
- If you think you've been assaulted while under the influence of Rohyponol or GHB, seek help immediately, try not to urinate before providing urine samples, and, if possible, collect any glasses from which you drink.
Women's Self Defense Training:
Would you like more information on R.A.D. or Date Rape?
Contact: Sgt. Jim Baylor, ccps
Questions, Comments or Suggestions
Updated March 2004
Officer Ken Jackson, ccps